If I told you that one of the biggest, most intricately
produced holiday hits of 2011, a track featuring
two absolute American R &B legends. Right. If
I told you it barely cracked the top 70 in the
United States, you'd probably think it was a
total flop break. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you'd
assume it just vanished. Yeah. But then, if I
told you that this exact same song... completely
bypassed American dominance to debut at number
one halfway across the globe. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Selling over 80 ,000 copies in a single week
in South Korea. You would have to wonder like
how on earth that actually happened. It completely
upends our, you know, our traditional understanding
of how domestic holiday music is supposed to
be haze. You expect an American Christmas song
by these massive American megastars to just hit
its ceiling at home. So when it explodes in an
entirely different hemisphere, it forces us to
Well, to really look under the hood at the actual
mechanics of the track. And that is exactly what
we are doing today. Welcome to the Deep Dive.
We're so glad you're here with us, because today
we are looking at the genuinely fascinating trajectory
of the 2011 holiday track, When Christmas Comes,
which is a duet by Mariah Carey and John Legend.
It's such a wild story. It really is. We pulled
a super comprehensive Wikipedia article detailing
this song's composition. deeply divided critical
reception, and of course, it's genuinely bizarre
chart history. Our mission today is to dissect
the anatomy of this specific track, to understand
exactly how a modern R &B Christmas song is built,
how it's visually packaged for the public, and,
like we said, how it gets consumed globally.
OK, let's unpack this. Yeah. To truly understand
how the song operates on a global scale, we first
have to look at the architectural foundation
of the music itself. Right. The actual composition.
Exactly. And to do that, we actually have to
go back to 2010. So before John Legend was even
in the picture. Oh, right. Because the song was
originally written and produced solely by Mariah
Carey and James Poyser, right? For Carey's 2010
album, Merry Christmas the Second. And just for
a little context for you listening, this was
her 13th studio album and her second Christmas
album. Which, I mean, that is a staggering position
to be in creatively. Just think about the shadow
she's operating under there. Oh, massive shadow.
Her first Christmas album featured All I Want
for Christmas is You, which isn't just a hit,
it is arguably the single most successful modern
holiday song in existence. Yeah, it's practically
its own industry at this point. Exactly, so the
pressure is just immense. How do you construct
a new holiday song that doesn't just sound like
a cheap imitation of your own legendary catalog?
Well, you go decidedly old school and you refuse
to cut any corners. Right. The sources describe
the track as a soul song with R &B influences
built on a simple groove. But looking at the
liner notes, there is absolutely nothing simple
about the logistics of creating that groove.
Oh, not at all. They didn't just fire up a laptop
and program some synthesized sleigh bells. They
relied heavily on live instrumentation, and they
recorded across four... Wait, let me check. Yeah,
four different top -tier studios. Four studios
for one track. Yeah. Guardian Angel in Bel -Air,
Westlake Recording Studios, Henson Studios in
Los Angeles, and Germano Studios in New York
City. I mean, you only book... multiple world
-class facilities like Henson and Germano, if
you are hunting for the absolute perfect acoustic
space for specific live instruments. Right, because
you can't fake that. You really can't. You cannot
fake the sound of real air moving through a physical
room. They were chasing a very specific organic
resonance. You really were. And they brought
in a full roster of heavy hitters to get it.
Alex Evans on drums, John Juvah Smith on guitar,
and James Poiser himself on the keyboards. Yeah.
And then there's the brass section, Rick Baptist
and Greg Adams on trumpet, Nick Lane on trombone,
and Dan Higgins on saxon flute. What's fascinating
here is how Cary and Poyser utilize that massive
roster of musicians to bridge two completely
different musical worlds. How so? Well, they
took a very traditional folksy holiday motif
specifically, Cary interpolating a portion of
the classic jingle bells melody just before the
final chorus. Oh, right. Yeah. But instead of
wrapping it in traditional orchestral string,
or, you know, choral arrangements, they anchored
it entirely in this classic, heavy, R &B, horn
and flute arrangement. It totally changes the
texture of the song. It's like cooking a massive
holiday meal completely from scratch with a full
kitchen of trained chefs rather than just microwaving
a frozen dinner. That's a great way to put it.
It takes significantly more effort, but you can
feel that organic richness in the final product.
Yeah. It isn't just background music. It demands
your attention. Absolutely. And on top of that
dense live band, Carrie does her own background
harmonies alongside Melanie Daniels, Charlotte
Gibson, and Nikki Richards. In fact, that jingle
bells moment we just mentioned. Yeah. Pop crush
reviewer Scott Shelter specifically noted that
this section perfectly showcases Carrie's famous
five octave range. And that's the magic of it.
The live band provides this incredibly warm,
earthy foundation. Because the instruments are
real, the track feels grounded, which allows
Carey's massive vocal acrobatics to soar without
the whole thing feeling detached or overly processed.
Okay, so we have this rich, organic, from scratch
foundation built in 2010. But a year later, the
recipe completely changes. It does. On November
7, 2011. Carey announced the track would be released
as a duet with John Legend. It officially dropped
later that month in the US and the UK. Carey
publicly stated that Legend was the perfect choice.
claiming his soulful creative decisions, took
it up several notches. And when you listen to
the two versions side by side, the dynamic shift
is just undeniable. Yeah. Interestingly, the
single release version with Legend actually lasts
for exactly one additional second compared to
the original album version. Wait, just one second.
Yeah. It's the tiniest tweak in runtime, but
the structural change to the feeling of the song
is massive. I have to be a little cynical for
a second, though. I really want to challenge
this narrative. OK, go for it. Was bringing in
John Legend purely an artistic choice to elevate
the soulfulness of the track? Or if we're being
honest about the music industry, was this just
a highly calculated commercial strategy? Like
a way to creatively relaunch a year old album
track as a brand new standalone single just to
double dip on sales for a second consecutive
holiday season. This raises an important question
about the intersection of art and commerce, especially
with holiday music. Because the reality is that
holiday music has an incredibly short window
of relevance. So true. Just a few weeks. Exactly.
You basically only have November and December
to make an impact. So to prevent an album track
from just fading into obscurity after its first
year, you have to find a mechanism to re -engage
the public and the radio programmers. And a new
feature does that. Strategically, adding a massive
star like John Legend is a brilliant commercial
move. It guarantees fresh headlines and forces
radio stations to treat it as a brand new release.
Well, the critics definitely noticed that strategic
move and it completely divided them. I bet. Yeah,
Scott Shelter at Pop Crush loved it. He gave
the duet four out of five stars, called it Sultry,
and explicitly stated it was superior to the
solo album version. But then you have Rich Jeswiak.
writing for The Village Voice. He looked at the
whole full -band R &B approach and dismissed
it as a retread of Carrie's 2005 The Emancipation
of Mimi era. Oh, wow. Yeah, he basically argued
she was just recycling her own past stylistic
successes. I mean, I hear that cynicism from
The Village Voice, but if this were purely a
lazy cash grab, they could have just commissioned
a generic... you know, electronic dance remix.
That's true, that happens all the time. By bringing
in John Legend, they fundamentally changed the
architecture of the song. Adding him didn't just
make the track louder, it shifted the entire
narrative. What do you mean by that? Think of
Carrie's original 2010 version as a beautiful
soliloquy on stage. She's singing to the audience.
But when you add legend, it transforms into an
intimate, unscripted dialogue between two people.
Oh, that's interesting. Right. The lyrics focus
heavily on giving the gift of love. They harmonize
on the lines, and me and you can have ourselves
a holiday, and we don't need nobody else to celebrate.
Right. Having two distinct masterfully soulful
voices sing those specific lines to each other
entirely justifies the re -release from an artistic
standpoint. The foundation remained the same,
but the play completely changed. Okay, yeah,
that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So you have
this sultry, soulful dialogue featuring two major
global stars. The next hurdle for the record
label is figuring out how to visually present
this to the public. And if you have Mariah Carey
and John Legend, the instant must be to go absolutely
massive. Exactly. You'd expect a million dollar
stage production, falling snow, a hundred backup
dancers, the works. Which would be the standard
playbook for a of this magnitude, you know. But
they threw out the playbook. Instead of going
big and untouchable, the marketing leaned aggressively
into relatable intimacy. The music video was
directed by Sana Hamri, and they didn't rent
out a huge soundstage. They filmed it right at
Mariah Carey's actual home in Los Angeles. Wow.
That is a highly deliberate visual strategy.
It really is, and it works so well. The video
features this incredibly celebratory, chaotic
Christmas house party vibe. Nick Cannon makes
a cameo, and the even integrated vintage footage
from the classic animated film, A Charlie Brown
Christmas. Oh, I love that. Right. And leading
up to the release. Carrie posted behind -the
-scenes images on her website showing just her
and Legend sitting casually at a piano together.
It's like they're actively trying to ground the
sheer technical brilliance of the music in something
deeply human and nostalgic. Exactly. It's incredibly
smart to juxtaposed these unreachable five octave
diva vocals with highly relatable nostalgic imagery
like Charlie Brown and a casual living room piano
sing -along. Yeah, it bridges the gap. And that
intimate living room vibe carried over into the
live performances as well. Carrie performed it
on her 2010 ABC Christmas special and it became
a staple of her annual Beacon Theater residency
in New York. Oh, is that called again? It has
the very grand title, All I Want for Christmas
is You. a night of joy and festivity. Of course.
But the Beacon Theatre is known for feeling uniquely
personal for a major venue. And to cap it all
off, in December 2016, legend actually surprised
the Beacon Theatre crowd by walking out unannounced
to join her on stage for the duet. It's brilliant
marketing because it connects the visual execution
directly back to the lyrical themes we discussed
earlier. When they sing, we don't need nobody
else to celebrate, filming at Carrie's actual
home perfectly encapsulates that sentiment. It
breaks down the barrier between the unreachable
megastar and the fan. Totally. When you watch
that video with the Charlie Brown cartoon playing
in the background and people crammed around a
piano, it makes you, the listener, feel like
you've been invited as a personal guest to an
exclusive but incredibly warm holiday. gathering.
So we've established the intimate Los Angeles
house party origins. We've mapped out the classic
American R &B sound, the world class horn section,
the cross country studio sessions. We have a
deeply American aesthetic. Very much so. You
would naturally expect this to be a strictly
domestic hit. But that very specific American
nostalgia somehow bypassed the U .S. charts and
ignited a firestorm halfway across the globe.
And the chart data for this track. is an absolute
master class in how unpredictable the global
music market can be. Let's contextualize the
domestic numbers first, just so you have a baseline.
Right. In the United States, the chart performance
was solid, but it was incredibly niche. The duet
hit number 15 on the adult R &B songs chart.
It also hit number 70 on the hot R &B hip hop
songs chart. OK. Which, by the way, was Carrie's
53rd entry on that specific chart, which is a
staggering achievement for her career. It also
made a brief international appearance hitting
number 57 on the Japan Hot 100. To put those
numbers in perspective, hitting number 70 on
a US chart is respectable, but it isn't a cultural
phenomenon. No, not at all. It means the song
is getting some targeted radio play, maybe playing
in the background at a department store while
you shop. It is passive consumption. Here's where
it gets really interesting. Let's look at South
Korea. In 2010, the original solo version of
the song charted in South Korea, but it barely
squeaked in. peaking at number 100. But in 2011,
when the duet with John Legend dropped, it absolutely
exploded. It's crazy. It debuted at number one
on the South Street in download chart. And a
digital download chart is very different from
a radio airplay chart. A download means someone
actively sought the song out. paid money for
it, and downloaded the file to own it. Yeah,
that requires high consumer intent. Exactly.
High intent. High intent and massive volume.
It sold 81 ,624 copies in its first week alone
in South Korea. Wow. And this wasn't just a fleeting
novelty spike that vanished a week later. It
remained incredibly strong. The following week,
it sold over 32 ,000 copies. The week after that,
almost 19 ,000 copies and over 13 ,000 in its
fourth week. That is serious staying power. Ultimately,
it peaked at number two on their overall digital
chart. If we connect this to the bigger picture,
it is a fascinating case study and how deeply
American soul and R &B translate across global
markets, regardless of the cultural specifics
of the lyrics. Because it is such a massive disparity.
We are talking about modest background level
R &B chart placements in the US versus absolute
undeniable dominance in South Korean digital
downloads. Yeah. Why does a song with a Charlie
Brown music video resonate so heavily in soul?
It speaks to the universal language of melody
and elite production. Earlier, the sources described
the song as having a simple groove. But when
you have musicians like Alex Evans on drums and
Jubu Smith on guitar, they create an undeniable
pocket. The pocket? Yes. For anyone unfamiliar,
the pocket is a technical term musicians use
to describe that deeply satisfying rhythmic sweet
spot where the drums and the bass lock together
so perfectly that you instinctively start nodding
your head. It's a feeling, not just a sound.
Precisely. And in South Korea, specifically within
their pop and R &B music industries, there is
a deep historical cultural appreciation for highly
polished, intricate 90s and 2000s style American
R &B production. Boy, that makes sense. Right.
They value high level vocal performance tremendously.
So the language barrier of the English lyrics
becomes entirely secondary. It just doesn't matter
as much. Not at all. The warmth of the live brass
section recorded at Henson Studios, that undeniable
pocket of the rhythm section. and the pure vocal
mastery of carrion legend harmonizing that musical
excellence completely bypasses language and geography.
South Korean audiences recognized the craftsmanship
and rewarded it. So what does this all mean?
We started today's deep dive by looking at what
goes into making a modern holiday classic. And
what we found is a narrative that constantly
defies expectations. It really does. When Christmas
Comes didn't start in a laboratory. It started
as a heavily produced, entirely organic studio
track with live horns hunting for acoustic perfection
across four different studios. And then it refused
to stay static? Exactly. It evolved into a highly
strategic duet that served both as a commercial
vehicle to breathe new life into an aging album
cycle, and as an artistic shift that turned a
solar reflection into a romantic dialogue. It
utilized deeply nostalgic, lo -fi house party
visuals to make unreachable megastars feel like
our next door neighbors. And ultimately, despite
being drenched in American holiday imagery, it
found its biggest, most passionate commercial
embrace thousands of miles away in South Korea.
It perfectly illustrates why looking at media
from multiple perspectives is so vital to truly
understanding it. Definitely. If you only look
at this track through the lens of the American
Billboard charts, you see a modest, middle -of
-the -road R &B hit. If you look at it through
the lens of the studio session musician, you
see an absolute masterclass in live instrumentation
and acoustic recording. Right, and the critics.
If you look at it through the eyes of music critics,
you see a debate over whether an artist returning
to a signature sound is a welcome revival or
a lazy retread. And if you look at international
digital sales charts, you see a smash hit. It
proves that a single piece of art can be valued
entirely differently depending on who the audience
is and where they happen to be listening from.
It is a great reminder that the life of a song
doesn't stop once it leaves the mixing desk.
It takes on a life of its own, dictated by the
people who hear it, which leads us with a final
thought for you to mull over as we wrap up today's
deep dive. Yeah, think about this. I want you
to think about your own favorite holiday songs.
the specific tracks you queue up every single
year without fail. How much of their appeal to
you relies on the actual musical composition,
the physical notes, the instruments, the vocal
phrasing, versus the visual nostalgia, the music
videos, and the strategic marketing surrounding
them. It's usually a much more complex recipe
than we realize. It really is. And furthermore,
in our highly connected digital age, does a song's
true home have to be the country it was recorded
in? Or can a soulful, deeply American R &B track
find its truest belonging halfway across the
globe in the headphones of a listener and soul?
We encourage you to keep questioning the media
you consume, to look past the surface -level
marketing, and to always pay attention to the
groove underneath. Thanks for joining us, and
we'll catch you next time.